YEP! This year I am giving away a custom crocheted costume for your AG doll! That means that if you win, you can pick any costume you’d like (that isn’t in my Etsy shop) your doll to have and I will make it for you! Isn’t that exciting?! 😀

PLEASE READ BEFORE ENTERING:

1: I have the right to refuse to make a costume you choose if I find it inappropriate or offensive in any way. Also, some costumes may be too difficult for me to make, but if that happens, we can do our best to figure out a way to represent the character, simplify it, or just choose a new costume if worst comes to worst. 😉

2:I can only ship to the U.S.

3. It will take 4-6 weeks (possibly more depending on the costume) for your prize to be ready to ship. Designing new costumes takes a lot of time and work, but you will get your prize! 😉

HOW TO ENTER:

1: Please get a parent’s permission to enter if you are under 18 years of age.I will be needing your email and home address so I can ship your prize to you. Rest assured, I will not share your information with anyone. I only need this information so I can ship your prize to you if you win

2: When you comment, say that you would like to enter. Then tell me what costume you would request if you win!

3: You have until Monday, April 10th at midnight to enter. All entries after that time will not be counted.

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Well, LHOAG, my dear blog – today is the day I celebrate you and the wonderful blog you have grown into. For 4 years now you have been a friend of mine – a place where can I express myself and my love for American Girl dolls.

We’ve come a long way – you and I. We’ve gone through frustrations and fears of losing all our hard work, but we have experienced such joy in the posts we’ve made, the followers we’ve gained, and all the thousands of comments we have received.

Which brings us to something important, doesn’t it, LHOAG?

My blog and I would like to thank you, dear reader, for following LHOAG – whether you’ve been here from the start in 2013 when I was an inexperienced 14 year old, or if you’re a new follower just getting to know the crazy 18 year old and her blog (which is now much more experienced) – we thank YOU for being here today and for every comment and like you have given! Even if you’re just a “behind the scenes” reader, thank you for your interest in my blog! <3

I can’t begin to express how thankful I am to have this blog! I have learned so much, gained so many friends, and reached a following that I didn’t think would ever be possible for me!

Now that I’m 18, undoubtedly a few of you have had the thought come into your head – “I wonder if Jaclynn will stop blogging?”

My answer is…..

NO. I can’t see a time in my future when I won’t be blogging here. I love it so much – it’s like a part of who I am! The only time I could see that as a possibility is maybe when I one day have kids of my own. Because working with 2 year olds makes me realize how crazy life as a mom can be. XD But I’m sure that IF that happens – I will come back.

So…. As with my past blogiversaries I’ve done giveaways, haven’t I? Well, my friends, just make sure you check back a little later to see what my thank you gift to you will be this year 😉

Before I go, just thank you all so much again! I know I say it every year, I know you hear it all the time, but I mean this so much – I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you. You gave LHOAG and I the wings we needed to soar and I couldn’t be more grateful! THANK YOU!!! 😀 <3

When did you start reading LHOAG? What do you love most about my blog?

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So if ya’ll didn’t know, I have an obsession with Star Wars. And Ahsoka. She’s amazing. <3

That means that I HAD TO MAKE AN AHSOKA COSTUME!

If you don’t know who Ahsoka is, she was once a Jedi (a Padawan under a very well known Jedi), but she left the Jedi Order when some things were going on (to put it mildly). She comes back in Star Wars Rebels and is an epic beast and she’s just awesome. XD

I had some problems creating this costume – Ahsoka’s outfit is very complex, but I managed to work everything out

I’m planning to make some more Star Wars Rebels costumes in the future – maybe have a Rebels line released? :O

Hi everyone! I have a photostory for you today that I hope you’ll enjoy! Especially since the pics were taken in a room in my dollhouse… 😉 XD

Riven-Delle was super busy baking up a storm; she had already made cupcakes, cookies, muffins – now she had a blueberry pie in the oven! She had wanted to bake a cake, too, but she had received too many interruptions by her siblings that took her away from her baking several times that day. From Clara fainting twice to Lana causing an argument to the little ones getting underfoot time and again – Riven-Delle was at her wit’s end. She wasn’t even the oldest of the kids, yet everyone seemed to be coming to her for everything – just as they always did.

Kiara stepped into the kitchen just as Riven-Delle was putting a dirty bowl by the sink (I say “by” since it was overflowing with dishes already) and let out a quick gasp. “Wow! That’s a lot of goodies!” She said, eyeballing the cookies.

“Yeah, well, that’s what I like to do,” Riven-Delle smiled, “Do you need something?” she asked, trying to hide her dread.

“Oh, no, I just came in for a drink of water,” Kiara said and went to find a glass. Riven-Delle let her shoulders sink in relief and continued with her work…

…but she hesitated when she heard the faucet turn on and heard dishes clanking around. “Uh – Kiara? What are you doing?” Riven-Delle asked.

“There’s a mountain of dishes that need washing, so I thought I’d help you out and start washing,” Kiara said, soapy sponge in hand.

Riven-Delle turned her head away, annoyance crawling up her spine. “Really, Kiara, you can go,” she said.

“Riven-Delle I don’t think you’re being very nice. I’m not going to disrupt your work by doing the dishes for you – in fact, I’ll be helping you along with your work by taking this load off your back,” Kiara said. Riven-Delle sighed and said, “You’re right. I’m sorry, Kiara. It’s nice of you to help me.”

The timer went off for the oven, so Riven-Delle got her oven mitts on to check on her pie while Kiara began scrubbing away.

While they were both preoccupied with their work, sneaky little Merida tip-toed into the kitchen and swiped a plate of cupcakes off the table and scurried off before anyone could notice she was ever there.

When Riven-Delle decided the pie was done baking, she took it out of the oven and set it on the table, only to be horrified by the emptiness that faced her.

“Where are my cupcakes?” Riven-Delle cried.

Kiara instantly stopped scrubbing the dishes and joined her sister’s side. “What on earth…”

“They’re gone,” Riven-Delle said, her voice shaky.

“Hey, it’s okay. I bet one of the little ones came in and took them – let’s go see if we can find them!” Kiara suggested.

“No, I’m sure they’re all gone by now anyway,” Riven-Delle said.

“Well, isn’t that a good thing? I mean, don’t you bake all these treats so we can eat them?” Kiara asked.

“Yes, but….,” Riven-Delle sighed, “Truth is, I’m not so upset about the cupcakes. I’m just so frustrated. I’ve been planning this baking day for weeks and I’ve been looking forward to having some time to myself, doing the thing I love. But all day I keep being interrupted by everyone and constantly dragged away from my baking. Why does everyone always want me?” Riven-Delle asked, a couple tears trickling down her cheek.

Kiara placed her hand on her sister’s shoulder and said, “I understand, everyone needs their own space, but really, think about how amazing it is that everyone loves you so much. I think just about everyone in this family looks up to you. And in a big family like ours, that’s something to be thankful for. You’re so appreciated in this house and I think you should learn to appreciate that.”

Riven-Delle smiled through her tears and hugged her sister tightly. She knew that lately she hadn’t been as appreciative of her family as she should have been and she was so grateful to Kiara for reminding her that appreciation goes both ways.

The End

Challenge: This week show someone you wouldn’t normally think of that you appreciate them. It just may make their day

Hi everyone! How are you all doing? I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve posted!

I do want to apologize for that. Honestly, I’ve been feeling so unmotivated lately – I’m having a hard time doing anything….

I know this is just for a time, though and I will get motivated and inspired again soon.

Anyways – February has been officially over for about 2 weeks now so that means it’s time for another monthly recap! 😀

The highlight of February was definitely celebrating my 18th birthday! My mom and I went out to lunch and did some shopping then we came home and had dinner and I opened presents from my brother and parents. Should I do a haul of all my gifts on LMF? 😉
My parents got me a beautifully shiny red laptop and I absolutely LOVE it!! I’ve been wanting a laptop for such a long time now and I’m definitely getting a lot of use out of it! 😀 (IT’S SO PRETTY!!!)
We also watched Return of the King on my birthday – I cried through the whole ending of the movie. My heart. <3

I was really excited that Jordan and Aaryn were able to come down for my birthday so we could all get dressed up and go to dinner as a big, happy family. It was so great seeing them again and being able to celebrate my birthday with my whole family

Also for my birthday my mom layered my hair for me and put some blonde highlights in it – it’s very light, so kinda hard to tell in pics, but it’s easy to see in person – I really love it! 😀

Aside from all the birthday excitement, I also began brainstorming a new book idea! It was really fun because I created backstories and history for the characters and the land which is something I hadn’t done before. It made me really excited and I’m in love with one of the characters 😀 <3
I wrote about a thousand words for this book so far… I’m on pause with it right now cause I still wanna do some more planning for it. I’m hoping that maybe I can turn it into a trilogy, but we’ll see if that happens ;D

I got sick just a few days after my birthday and I’m still recovering. I’m so congested. Bleah! XD

I watched Moana – We didn’t see it in theaters, but we bought it the day it came out on DVD and I REALLY liked it! I don’t love it, but I really liked it – the songs are amazing (I’ve been listening to them on repeat pretty much nonstop XD ) and I really like the story. It felt relatable to me in some ways, like how Moana is trying to find who she is and how Maui realizes that hook or no hook, he’s Maui.

Once Upon a Time continued – AGH!!! NEW EPISODE TONIGHT!!! *fangirls*

And Jordan and Aaryn came down again for 4 days!! That was the best ever!! They came down because Jordan might be getting a job down here again and he had to take a test for it. Fingers are crossed!! 😀 But it was really great – we watched Storks together cause they hadn’t seen it yet and Jordan and I watched some episodes of Word Girl (oh, the memories), and then on their last day here, our neighbors/friends (they’re like family) came over and we all played a game together and talked about old times. It was super fun! 😀

And what more do I have to look forward to?

LHOAG’s birthday is coming up super soon!! I need to start planning a way to celebrate ;D

Hopefully Emma and I will be going to AG soon to buy our final dolls…

I’d also really like to be actually writing that book I mentioned earlier – I NEED TO PLAN SO I CAN WRITE. XD

And I’m really just gonna be working a lot on being responsible and growing in my walk with God. I need to stop being so distracted by worthless things and start DOING things, even if I don’t feel like it.

I’m hoping to get more active on my blogs, but in the meantime, please continue to bear with me. I’ve got a lot I’m trying to figure out right now

How have you all been? Is 2017 treating you well? Did you like Moana (if you saw it)?

Like this:

Yep, you read that right. The 14 year old girl who started a doll blog is 18 today and still happily blogging with her dolls.

It’s been so weird lately thinking that I’m gonna be 18 – that’s when you’re considered an adult! So this is very strange for me. I don’t feel like I should be 18, but I am, and in a way – I can feel that I am. It’s just super strange. XD

It’s also been scary thinking that I’m gonna be an adult now. I know things won’t flip like a switch and the adult thing will be a process, but it is kinda scary thinking of the responsibility and everything. It is exciting, though, and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for my future! 😀

I had planned to do a birthday photoshoot today, but I got really distracted this morning and need to get ready to go out with my mom, so I’ll leave you with this picture of the lovely Jocelyn – the doll who looks most like me

Thank you all for being my friends, for encouraging me, being a huge support and motivation, for just being awesome and sticking with me for all these years! I’m so grateful to have you all as my friends! <3

Today I sent in my letter to American Girl stating my opinions and how I feel about the terrible decisions they are making.

Here is my letter:

To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Jaclynn and I have been collecting American Girl dolls for 9 years now. I have 23 dolls, 3 sets of Bitty Twins (which are unhappily, not available anymore), one Bitty Baby, and one Wellie Wisher.
I also run an American Girl doll blog that I’ve had for going on 4 years now where I post photoshoots and stories with my dolls. I have a large following on there and I follow nearly 100 other doll blogs myself. And we are all saying the same thing; What is AG doing?

For many long years we have bought your products and poured our talents, our hearts, and our souls into them. Creating stories, capturing the doll’s personalities on camera, making stopmotions and movies – we have supported you and loved you all our lives, but now I fear that if you don’t revert to your old ways – you are going to lose hundreds of customers.

This is a list of things that are painfully upsetting to me and hundreds of your fans and customers:

1. Permanent underwear – What makes no sense to me is that on Facebook you asked for our opinion on this matter, but I’ve already seen images that you are doing it anyway, despite how your customers feel about it. Why on earth are you making the dolls have permanent undies? Is it too expensive now for you to make real underwear for your dolls? On the bottom of the doll it honestly looks like they have a lump of something in their “underwear.” It’s completely disgusting and so cheap of you to do this. Why even come out with a bathroom set when the dolls are going to have to sit on the toilet or bathe with their underwear on? In play – girls will want to remove the underwear and now they won’t be able to.

2. Squishy vinyl – I have also seen photos of your dolls now being squishy. How far will you go? For years the dolls have been firm and if they started to squish in that was bad and meant they were exposed to too much heat. So now, with this new vinyl – if they are exposed to too much heat, will they melt? Because it certainly doesn’t seem like they could squish in any more than they are already. This is beyond upsetting.

3. The packaging – The new doll boxes feel like you are buying a doll from Walmart and that is NOT a good thing. The boxes used to feel like you were buying a keepsake doll that was special – like it was more than a doll you were buying. But now it just feels like you’re buying some cheap doll from Walmart for over a hundred dollars. And honestly – some of the packaging on the clothes have left holes in the clothing. That’s awful.

4. Selling AG products in other stores – Kohls, Toys R Us, Sears – every time I see your products in one of these stores my heart sinks and I want to turn my head away. It feels so shameful for these products that used to be so special being sold in stores like these. I feel that you have taken away the specialness of your products.

5. Wellie Wishers – Although they are cute and I own one myself, these dolls don’t look AG. They’re like misfit dolls that look like a brand Toys R Us created and should only be sold there.

6. Discontinuing the Bitty Twin line – I was so sad when this line was discontinued. When I was younger, the Bitty Twins were a main part of my every day play. I have so many great memories with them and I always hoped you would make more – especially Irish ones with freckles. You can imagine my disappointment when they disappeared.

7. Getting rid of the Best Friend dolls – This one breaks my heart. The friends are such a huge, main part of the stories and you took them away. They were beautiful and important. And even when you brought back Samantha, you didn’t bring Nellie. Now you’re bringing Felicity back and not Elizabeth. Honestly – if you had brought back Nellie I would have bought her in a heartbeat. She was always one of my favorites, but I was so young when she retired that I didn’t have a chance to buy her before she was archived. And now, even though you got rid of all of the classic friend dolls that everyone loved, you are bringing in Tenney Grant and her friend Logan Everett and I’ve heard possibly also Tenney’s friend Jaya. You would make more sales bringing back the retired friend dolls than you will these – especially with the changes being made to these dolls.

8. The movies – Honestly, the movies are terrible now. I struggled through the Grace Thomas movie – the acting was terrible, there’s way too much singing and dancing now, and your 9 year old characters look like they’re 13. The historical movies are the best and made with real effort and quality. I wish you would make more of those.

9. Modernized historical clothing – Years ago, when American Girl was still Pleasant Company, the historical outfits were extremely high quality, well made, and really looked and felt historically accurate – and the outfits cost way less. Now the historical outfits are way too modernized, made with cheaper fabric, and cost more. We want the historical clothes back – the way they used to be. Please stop trying to make the historical dolls modernized when they are really from hundreds of years ago.

10. The pets – Why are the pets now creepy looking stuffed animals? It looks like they have oversized stuffed animals as pets instead of actual pets.

All of the topics listed above lead to one thing – I, along with many others, want you to stop changing things. You are only making things worse and will continue losing customers because of it.

Once you revamp the dolls to have permanent underwear and squishy vinyl I can tell you that I will no longer be purchasing your dolls. The money will no longer be worth it for me. And I cannot put into words how much it pains me to write those words because I had thought I would be buying dolls from you for my entire lifetime. I never in my wildest dreams thought this company I loved so dearly would come to this; that I would be forced to make such a decision or even to write such a letter.

I thank you for who you used to be – for bringing joy and fun into my life. Without you, I never would have created my blog and without my blog, I wouldn’t have made such great friends who loved AG as much as I did.

Sincerely Yours,
~Jaclynn~

~~~*~~~

Writing the end of the letter brought me close to tears. It was painful to say those words – to say that I wouldn’t buy anymore dolls from them. I love AG, the way they used to be, but not now. This isn’t AG anymore.

If you are unhappy with the changes AG is making and already have made, I highly encourage you to write them your own letter! They need to know just how many of their customers are unhappy with what they are doing and why.

Once again, it is time for all of us – as lovers, long time buyers, and supporters of American Girl to unite.

For a while now I haven’t really been fond of what AG is doing. Discontinuing the Bitty Twin line, bringing in the Wellie Wishers (which, although are cute, do look like a Toys R Us brand), the new packaging, zip ties on their necks, and now get this – sewn on doll underwear.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am personally really upset in the direction AG is going – with the choices that are being made. The boxes we get our dolls in look so cheapy – it makes me feel like they’re something from Walmart. I’ve always loved their doll boxes and all their packaging – everything felt like a keepsake – like you were buying something super special.

Oh – and what I really can not stand – is that you can now buy American Girl products (dolls included) in Toys R Us and Kohls.
Now I know that a lot of people like that because they don’t have stores close by, but here’s the thing – AG is supposed to be special. I’d rather buy their stuff online than from a place like TRU or Kohls! Every time I see AG products in those stores my heart sinks. I feel like the special, keepsake, high quality of these dolls and products have died down.

And that is what I’m here to talk to you about…

American Girl hasn’t been the same for a long, long time. For years the quality has been leaving us, but I’ve never really thought about it all that much – until now. The historical outfits are too modernized, the packaging stinks (really, holes got in some of the outfits because of how they were packed), their movies are AWFUL now (seriously, where did their effort go? Samantha and Felicity are AMAZING movies!), they’re making their stories way too similar, and now we’re getting sewn on underwear?? Really??

I am going to be writing to AG – kindly telling them how I feel and asking for the quality AG to return.

I ask you to do the same. American Girl believes that girls can make a difference, right? Then let’s makea difference!
I believe that if we all work together that we can make a difference – I believe there is a chance that we can get quality AG back!

So please, send them a letter, write them an email – whatever works best for you! I only advise that you are kind in your letter – please don’t hate on them 😉

And once you have decided to help – I ask that you put this button on your blog with a link back to this post and also share this post all around the blogosphere (or even Instagram and YouTube if you have those!) – the more people that see this, the more people we’ll get to participate. And the more people we get to participate – the bigger the chance we have to make a difference.

1. I started playing piano. Really the keyboard since we don’t have a piano, but ya know. XD I’m having so much fun with this!! I can’t wait until I get REALLY good! 😀

2. I’ve practiced my singing a lot more. I really love to sing and lately I’ve been focusing more on singing on key and using my actual voice instead of my fake singing voice. I think I’m getting pretty good

3. IT HAILED – OH MY GOSH YOU GUYS IT WAS AMAZING!! There was a storm like last week and it kept hailing off and on. There was lightning, winds, thunder, pouring rain – I literally died. It hasn’t hailed since I was super young so it was almost like a first experience for me. XD There was so much it seriously looked like it had snowed!! And afterwards the mountains you can see from our house were covered in snow, but it’s all pretty much melted now.

4. We went to our friend’s wedding – which was SO beautiful! Okay, guys. The parents walked down the aisle to “The Last Goodbye” music and I forget who (probably the bride), but someone walked down to “All I Ask of You” music. I was crying. It was amazing. *dies*

5. We are looking into moving- yet again we’re in the searching stage. I really think that this time we’re going to move so it’s exciting and scary and emotional and yeah…. Prayers concerning this would be appreciated. 😉

2. The. Last. Jedi. Just – oh my gosh. Can you even believe that it’s THIS YEAR?? *dies*

3. LOTR POP!s were revealed!! :O FRODO and SAM!! Oh my heart. <3

4. Rey is a Solo. I’m like totally convinced. I’ll be surprised if it’s not true, that’s how convinced I am. O_O (I made that image after reading an in depth theory of Rey being a Solo and fell in love with the idea. XD )

Tenney and Logan’s release- isn’t it so exciting?! They’re almost here!! :O

My 18th birthday- Guys I’m gonna be 18 this month. Isn’t that bizarre?! I started this blog when I was 14…. So crazy… O_O